Abstract
Microsoft is an American public multinational conglomerate founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1975 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. At that time, the founders were students and they wanted to sell their first translator software Altair 8800.
Today, the company is headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Its global annual revenue in 2005 was $39.8 billion and it employs over 60,000 people in 139 countries. Since September 2005, Microsoft has organized itself in three core business groups: Microsoft Platform Products & Services Division, Microsoft Business Division and the Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division. Microsoft develops, manufactures, licenses and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing devices. It also provides online communication services and information services through its MSN portals . Thus, the main products of the company are software even if since the beginning it has had a hardware development branch. Thanks to a near monopoly of the market, Microsoft Windows is the leader in the OS industry.
How have those two students built a global company? What was the expansion strategy of the founders of Microsoft?
In order to understand the international policy of the global brand, we will initially focus on the international facts of the company, and in the second part we will study the industry. In the third part, we will analyze the international strategy of the company and, finally, we will focus on the Marketing Mix of Microsoft.
